美國堪薩斯州的尼歐德沙市,是一個人口僅有2800人的小城市。然而,尼歐德沙市的地下水遭致癌化學物質汙染,為了贏得上億美元的賠償金,正在與石油業巨人英國石油公司(BP)進行訴訟。
1897年至1970年間,有一座煉油廠在當年的尼歐德沙鎮東南方營運。此煉油廠為英國石油公司、前美國石油公司(Amoco Oil)與前美孚油公司(Standard Oil)共同經營;營運項目包括原油蒸餾、觸媒裂解、白金重組與蒸氣產生。
尼歐德沙市目前表示,索賠金額希望高於4億2300萬美元,與先前於2004年3月29日向威爾森地方法院提出10億美元的賠償金相較,尚不及其二分之一。 此訴訟提出,煉油廠汙染了尼歐德沙地區的地下水及土壤,然而廠區管理者為了規避責任而掩蓋汙染的事實。
此一訴訟案當中,尼歐德沙市表示其善後工作處理得並不恰當;同時與居民健康問題相較之下,訴訟內容較為重視環境汙染對於當地地價與歲收的負面影響。
The city of Neodesha is small, just 2,800 residents, but it is taking on oil giant BP in court in an effort to win hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for contamination of the city's groundwater with cancer-causing chemicals.
From 1897 to 1970 a petroleum refinery operated in the southeastern Kansas town of Neodesha. The former refinery is owned by BP, formerly Amoco Oil Company, formerly Standard Oil Company. Operations at the facility included crude distillation, catalytic cracking, platinum reforming, and steam generation.
Neodesha now says it wants more than $423 million in damages, less than half of the $1 billion the city sought when it originally filed the lawsuit March 29, 2004 in Wilson County District Court.
The lawsuit alleges that the refinery had poisoned the groundwater and soil and that its managers covered up the pollution to avoid liability.
The city's lawsuit focuses on cleanup efforts at the site, which it says are inadequate, and the harm the pollution has done to property values and city revenues rather than on residents' health problems.
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